Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication apparatus, a method for controlling a communication apparatus, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a case has been increasing in which an electronic apparatus such as a digital camera is provided with a wireless local area network (LAN) client function and such an electronic apparatus is connected to a wireless LAN to be used as a communication apparatus. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-35768 discusses a technique for facilitating image sharing by providing a digital camera with a wireless LAN function.
In addition, a communication method is being discussed in which a communication apparatus such as a portable telephone and a digital camera that is provided with a wireless LAN function serves as a base station (access point) in a wireless LAN and carries out inter-apparatus communication with another communication through an infrastructure mode (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-225060).
Wi-Fi Alliance has defined a standard called Wi-Fi Fi Direct. Carrying out connection processing as defined in Wi-Fi Direct enables a direct connection between communication apparatuses through the infrastructure mode without a complicated user operation, which in turn improves user convenience.
In the case where communication apparatuses directly communicate with each other through Wi-Fi Direct, a user selects a communication apparatus to communicate with through a user interface (UI) of a user's communication apparatus.
In this case, the user's communication apparatus searches for Wi-Fi Direct supported apparatuses that are present nearby and displays, in its UI, a list of Wi-Fi Direct supported apparatuses found through the search. After the list is displayed, the user selects a desired apparatus from the displayed list. The user's communication apparatus then carries out processing to connect to the selected apparatus as defined in Wi-Fi Direct to thus achieve direct communication.
To date, in the aforementioned UI display processing, among the Wi-Fi Direct supported apparatuses found through the search, apparatuses aside from those operating as wireless LAN clients, or in other words, only the apparatuses operating as base stations are displayed in the UI. Alternatively, apparatuses operating as wireless LAN clients are grayed out so that the user cannot select them. This is because wireless LAN clients cannot directly communicate with each other in the infrastructure mode.
In addition, information on the communication apparatuses displayed in the aforementioned UI display processing includes device names set as desired by the respective communication apparatuses, media access control (MAC) addresses of the communication apparatuses, or the like.
In this manner, with the existing technique, it is difficult for the user to select a desired apparatus from the search result if the desired communication apparatus is already operating as a wireless LAN client or if the displayed information does not allow the user to specify the desired apparatus with ease.